In recent years, thin display devices such as liquid crystal display devices have rapidly become widely used. Such devices are widely used not only in television applications but also in e-book devices, e-photo frames, industrial appliances (IA), personal computers (PC), tablet computers, smartphones, and the like. These applications have various performance requirements, and a variety of liquid crystal display modes have been developed.
One liquid crystal display mode that has become more commonly used in recent years is the FFS mode, in which liquid crystal molecules with positive or negative dielectric anisotropy are aligned horizontally relative to the principal surface of a substrate. Display configurations such as those described below that utilize this type of liquid crystal display mode and exhibit improved transmittance are currently being researched.
One known example of such a technology is the liquid crystal display device disclosed in Patent Documents 1 and 2, for example, in which even the interior regions of contact holes for connecting pixel electrodes to the source electrodes of thin-film transistor elements are part of the transmissive region for forming images.